• Nigeria will exceed its borrowing limit in 2023; seeks a new loan of N11 trillion
• Nigeria warns its citizens in South Africa of impending attack
• Something will soon happen in PDP, says Wike
• Police officer in Rivers, allegedly rapes minor, films naked
• NARD complains that six out of ten doctors are leaving Nigeria

Across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, these are the five top Nigerian news stories you shouldn‘t miss:

Nigeria will exceed its borrowing limit in 2023; seeks a new loan of N11 trillion

According to Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance and National Planning, the federal government will sell national assets and borrow more than N11 trillion to cover the budget deficit in 2023.

She added that if the petroleum subsidy is maintained until the full 2023 fiscal cycle, the government’s budget deficit is predicted to be greater than N12.42 trillion.

While defending the Fiscal Strategy Paper and Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2023–2025 before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on Monday, Mrs. Ahmed made this disclosure.

Explaining two scenarios of the budget deficit to the committee, the minister said the first option involves retaining the petroleum subsidy for the entire 2023 fiscal year.

She says that in the first scenario, the deficit is anticipated to increase to N12.41 trillion in 2023 from the planned N7.35 trillion in 2022, or 196% of total revenue or 5.50% of the projected GDP. The government will spend N6.72 trillion on subsidies under this alternative, she continued.

According to Mrs. Ahmed, the second option would maintain subsidies in place until June 2023, bringing the deficit to N11.30 trillion, or 5.01 percent of the projected GDP. The expected cost of the PMS subsidy in this scenario is N3.3 trillion.

She noted that the first option is not likely to be achievable based on the current trend while the second option would require tighter enforcement of the performance management framework for government-owned enterprises that would significantly increase operating surplus in 2023.

The projected deficit under the second option, the minister said, is expected to be financed through new borrowings from local and international sources. This will include a total of N9.32 trillion in new borrowings, comprising N7.4 trillion from domestic sources and N1.8 trillion from foreign sources. The government is expected to generate N206.1 billion from privatisation proceeds and N1.7 trillion in multilateral project-tied loans.

Nigeria warns its citizens in South Africa of impending attack

The Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa, has alerted Nigerians living in South Africa of a planned attack on foreign nationals.

In a memo dated 24 August, the consular section of the embassy wrote, “this is to advise Nigerians living in South Africa to be vigilant and exercise caution in their activities due to the recent utterances of the proponents of the Operation Dudula and their threats to attack foreign nationals in this country.”

The group (Operation Dudula), according to the letter, scheduled a march against foreign migrants in South Africa starting on September 2nd through public announcement and social media video clips.

The march, according to the embassy, is intended to protest undocumented foreign nationals as well as foreign shop owners and business owners.

Because some South Africans accuse foreigners of peddling drugs or stealing their employment, violent attacks on Nigerians and other Africans frequently break out in that country.

The South African government who had largely blamed the attacks on criminals, later admitted that some of it was being driven by xenophobia.

The attacks led Nigeria to boycott the World Economic Forum in South Africa which was to be attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Something will soon happen in PDP, says Wike

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has predicted that the People’s Democratic Party(PDP), will experience change very soon.

According to a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, Wike spoke on Monday at the opening of internal roads in Rumuesara, Eneka town in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.

Additionally, Governor Wike stated that some of the candidates for Nigeria’s presidency were merely uniting to plunder the country’s remaining funds.

Wike said some of the presidential candidates for the 2023 election do not mean well for the country, adding that he is in a privileged position to know better, and would reveal their identities at the appropriate time so that Nigerians could use their votes to reject them.

Wike said, “Some other people are busy, putting themselves together on how they will take over leadership in Nigeria to loot the remaining ones these other people have already kept.

“I am privileged to know and at the appropriate time, I’ll tell you who these people are. You need to know what is happening in Nigeria.

“Forget about all these people running around saying they want to rescue or save you (Nigeria). Just watch to see what is going to happen next.

“All of us should be calm concerning what is happening in PDP. In fact, nothing has happened yet. But by the grace of God, something will happen.”

He emphasized that despite the fact that his administration has continued to launch and dedicate projects for the people of the Rivers, his opponents have persisted in funding negative media campaigns against him.

Wike claimed that despite these unfavorable media reports, his administration has continued to provide good governance in order to improve relations with the residents of Rivers State.

He said, “Look at us concentrating in giving our people good governance. What is good governance? Good governance is making the people to be happy.

“Good governance is providing infrastructure for the people. Good governance is not about party. Providing good governance is about leadership.

“We are here every day flagging off projects, commissioning projects even though our tenure is coming to an end.”

Police officer in Rivers, allegedly rapes minor, films naked

A police officer, Salihu Kazeem, has been accused of raping a 17-year-old girl and her friend in his home in Rivers State’s Port Harcourt area.

The victim claimed that Kazeem committed the crime after accusing her and her friend of making unauthorized withdrawals totaling N500,000 from his bank account. 

Additionally, the child claimed that a friend had introduced her to Kazeem while she was job-hunting sometime in March 2022, and that he had followed her after she reported the incident to the Rumokpakani Police Station.

She said, “He accused us of stealing when we returned his Automated Teller Machine card which he gave us to get something to eat after a friend introduced us to him. He claimed that he received many debit alerts and when we asked for the amount, he said N500, 000.

“He discharged my friend and kept me and the girl that went to buy food in his house. He called his boys and told them that we were thieves.

“He asked us to take off our dresses and filmed us as we were naked. He said if we don’t cooperate with him, he would spread our nude videos. He took us to a room and slept with us till the next morning.”

In his reaction, Kazeem, while denying the act, described the victims as hook-up girls, adding that they consented to the sexual act.

He said, “When they came to my house, I gave one of them my ATM to buy food. They left with the ATM card and I didn’t see them till 11 pm. None of them called to tell me anything. The only thing I was receiving was debit alerts.

“I tried to reach one of them that her friends connected me to for hook-up. She told me she gave my ATM card to another lady and said I should not be offended.”

Contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Grace Iringe-Koko, said the state Commissioner of Police, Friday Eboka, had invited both parties.

She said, “So, we are expecting them at the command today. I am sure after hearing from them, discreet investigation will begin and the outcome will be made known to the public. Whoever is found culpable will face the law.”

NARD complains that six out of ten doctors are leaving Nigeria

The Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors has said six out of ten doctors in the country plan to leave the country for greener pastures.

This is just as it disclosed that there are only 12,297 resident doctors in both the Federal and state tertiary health institutions in the country.

The NARD President, Dr. Dare Ishaya, disclosed these in an interview with on Monday.

Ishaya said, “As of the last time we issued the questionnaire, we found that out of 10 resident doctors, six of them are planning to leave or have the intention to leave.

“The statistics we had then was in December 2021. So, it’s either they are planning to leave or they have thought of leaving.”

Identifying the reasons behind the development, Ishaya said, “As we speak, I am aware that a lot of my colleagues are working towards leaving the country, and there are a lot of factors responsible for that. The push factor is majorly the economy.

“Of course, you will agree with me that we are having inflation in the country and the rate at which our naira is being devalued is alarming. If you compare our pay with the pay where most of these health workers go, you will discover that what we earn here is not up to one-tenth of what they get practising there.

“As long as these factors exist, our members and other health workers will continue to seek greener pastures except if things are done to reverse them.”

Ishaya added that currently, there are only 9,297 resident doctors in the FTHI and there are between 2,000 and 3,000 resident doctors in the STHI.